


Morning Sunlight

by Sarill



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Adventure, Cuddling, Fluff, Language Barrier, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-15 10:23:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9230723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarill/pseuds/Sarill
Summary: Lalli and Emil go off to find books. Instead, they find trolls, and maybe something more.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Urania_baba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urania_baba/gifts).



Choices

“Split up, she said,” Emil muttered under his breath. “It’ll be fine, she said. You’ll go with Lalli, he knows what he’s doing. It’ll be fine.” Emil stomped along for another few seconds before halting, letting out a breath. 

Okay, this wasn’t so bad. Sigrun and Mikkel had gone in the opposite direction to look for books, and it wasn’t like he was against spending time with Lalli. That is, if he knew where the scout was. He had vanished as soon as they had started, which Emil supposed was good for a scout, but bad for a partner. 

Emil took a deep breath before continuing, walking more lightly than before. Just because he was frustrated and it was daytime didn’t mean he wanted any trolls to know where he was. That would be stupid. Emil was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

He headed toward the cluster of buildings that was his target. Sigrun and Mikkel were investigating a similar place in a different little town, with Tuuri and Reynir manning the cat-tank at a point between the two. 

 

Just as Emil got to the entrance to what looked like the town proper, Lalli dropped down from the tree that he had been in. The soft thud of his boots startled Emil and caused him to jump, his grenades clattering together as they settled. 

“Shh!” Lalli told him, holding a finger to his lips. Emil sighed. He had been paired with Lalli because he spoke the most Finnish of the group, beyond the non-immune Tuuri. It didn’t seem like Lalli was keen on communicating though. 

The two moved forward together. This time Lalli remained in sight, to Emil’s immense relief. 

“Did you see anywhere that might have books when you were scouting?” Emil asked. At Lalli’s blank expression, Emil tried some of the Finnish Tuuri had taught him. 

“Where books?”

“Follow,” Lalli replied in Swedish and took off, Emil jogging behind him to keep up. 

Emil had an ungodly crush on the Fin, although he couldn’t figure out why for the life of him. Lalli was snappy and curt, when he spoke at all. But the scout had saved his life several times before, and likely had done so more times that Emil wasn’t aware of. He still wasn’t sure about the whole mage thing, but that was a problem for another day. 

Lalli stopped in front of a large building, and Emil was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he almost rammed into the scout. That wasn’t good, especially in troll territory. Emil resolved to contemplate his ill-advised crush on his own time, preferably in the safety of the cat-tank. 

“Books there,” Lalli said in Swedish, pointing to the big building in front of them. It was solidly built, a grey concreate behemoth that didn’t let age get to it as much as some of its smaller brethren. There was a sign on the front of the building but the letters were faded, and it was covered in the general growth that had coated most of the manmade objects that had been left in the silent world. 

“Let’s go then, I guess,” Emil said mainly to himself, loosening his flamethrower to make sure it would come free easily. 

The building looked reasonably safe inside, without fresh signs of trolls. There had been two sets of doors, grimy with age, and the first door was a struggle to get through that required both of them working together to open. The second swung open with only a moderate shove, which hopefully meant that the double doors had kept most of the weathering and decay out. When they had opened the second door, Emil gasped. 

“It’s a library,” he said, almost reverently. All of the books in here would be worth a fortune, easily enough to make all of them rich. He turned to look back at Lalli, but he had vanished. “Typical,” Emil muttered under his breath, but soon forgot his displeasure. The sheer quantity of books was breathtaking, and Emil wandered deeper into the building, looking for some better-preserved books that would likely be further in. The double doors kept out most of the elements, but not all of them. 

Emil was too preoccupied filling his arms with the most elaborate books that he could find to notice the faint dripping coming from near the wall, or the soft skittering noises that almost seemed to follow him on the furthest edge of his hearing. 

 

Lalli reappeared when Emil’s arms were just about full with fancy-looking books. His tap startled the Emil, who was busy looking through the shelves, searching for the perfect book. The cleanser jumped, almost dropping his prizes, and turned toward Lalli. 

“What was that about?” he snapped before seeing the scout’s face. Lalli looked terrified, and Emil paled. “Wait, what’s wrong?” At the clear lack of comprehension, Emil switched to Finnish and tried again. 

“Troll. Run.” was what Lalli said, also in Finnish, not even trying to translate. It took Emil a second to figure out what he said, but as soon as Emil deciphered the words, he ran. Shifting the books to one arm and losing some in the process, he pulled his flamethrower out with his newly free hand. Lalli darted out in front, leading the way. 

The door was in their sight when everything went to hell. A troll slithered out from behind a bookshelf, blocking their path to the door, and to freedom. 

Emil dropped his books to stare at the troll in horror. It had an uncomfortable number of tentacles, most writhing independently of each other. It was big, too, with altogether too many eyes. 

Emil directed a stream of flame at the troll and it flinched back, but not for long. As he stopped the flame Lallu lunged forward, knife out in front of him, slicing of a few tentacles off before darting back to safety. That was the plan, at least, but one of the writhing things managed to snag him by the leg. Emil sent a jet of flame to sever it and Lalli stumbled back. Clearly shaken he gave Emil a weak smile of thanks, which Emil returned, just as weakly. 

“What should we do?” Emil asked, spraying another gout of flame at the thing. He could hold it off like this, but not indefinitely, as his fuel wouldn’t last more than another few minutes of this heavy use. 

“Wait,” Lalli said, disengaging after a stab at one of the thing’s eyes. It had felt that blow, but the troll had too many eyes to consider blinding it, and the tentacles made it difficult to get that close. Emil knew that Lalli had a rifle, but that noise would bring even more trolls, and until they could get out of the building, that was too close to a death sentence to take the risk. 

Lalli put his hands up in front of him, knife tucked under one arm, and Emil looked at him in confusion. Was he trying to cast a spell? This was not the time for that mumbo-jumbo, while they were on the verge of being eaten. 

Emil was about to voice his complaints when Lalli started chanting. His tone rose and fell, almost like a song, and the Finnish words sounded powerful to Emil, despite the fact he had no idea what Lalli was saying. 

Emil kept at it with the flamethrower, teeth clenched, his fuel on the verge of running out. Then, to his utter astonishment, Lalli began to glow. A faint blue light suffused the area, giving the mage an unearthly glow. He seemed to float for a second and Emil couldn’t tear his eyes away even as his flamethrower sputtered to a stop. 

Lalli’s eyes flew open, glowing with that eerie blue. Then something materialized over him, superimposed on top of Lalli. It had ears, and a tail, and all Emil could tell was that it was some type of cat. 

The troll, once it had realized that the fire had stopped, tensed itself for a lunge forward. But the cat sprang first, claws sharp. Lalli remained in place as if frozen, his eyes glowing as the spirit cat tore the troll to bleeding pieces. Emil looked at the scene in shock. The troll didn’t have a chance. 

A hint of movement out of the corner of his eye made Emil turn, just in time to see a small troll lunge at the defenseless Lalli. Emil didn’t think, reacting on instinct as he swung his flamethrower at the thing, connecting with a solid thump. The little troll went flying to smack into a wall with a dull thud. 

Without warning Lalli collapsed, the glowing spirit vanishing at the same time. Emil bit his lip, thinking quickly. The big troll was down, but they needed to get out of there before something else came looking for a snack, and Lalli didn’t look able to move. 

Emil holstered his flamethrower, useless at this point without any fuel, and boosted Lalli into a fireman’s carry. He was lighter than Emil had realized, as he wrapped an arm about his legs to secure him. Then Emil walked forward, taking a second to get used to the new balance. 

Lalli needed to eat more, Emil decided as he carefully picked his way past the eyeball troll. He was too skinny. The troll twitched occasionally, but didn’t seem to be a threat. That was, until the two had passed the second door. Emil glanced back to make sure the way was clear and saw the thing shambling upright. It was bleeding from slashes all over, but still managed to stagger to its feet. 

Emil fumbled for a grenade as the troll opened its mouth. It had too many teeth, and Emil was sick and tired of the thing, with its teeth, and eyes, and tentacles. Couldn’t it have a reasonable amount? Of course not. 

Emil pulled the pin and tossed the grenade, watching it fall in a perfect arc to land right next to the troll. The resulting explosion caused him to stagger as a wave of heat rushed over him, but when he looked back, the entrance had collapsed right on top of the troll. 

Counting that a win, Emil turned back the direction they had come from. It didn’t take long for Lalli’s slight weight to hang heavy on his shoulders, though. He followed the pair of tracks that they had made heading out, counting himself fortunate that nothing had happened to cover them up. He would have been lost otherwise, utterly and completely. 

 

By the time he got to the cat-tank, Emil could barely keep on his feet. He stumbled the last few steps, going down on one knee as the others in the party rushed out to help him. Mikkel took Lalli from him and Emil made a vague noise of protest. He had carried the scout this far, he wanted to make sure that he was okay. 

“What happened?” Tuuri asked, poking her head out of the cat-tank. Emil explained, watching anxiously as Mikkel poked Lalli, eventually wrapping a bandage around his leg. 

“Did you get hurt at all?” he asked Emil, and he shook his head. 

“I’m okay. But why isn’t Lalli waking up?” Emil asked, looking back and forth between Tuuri and Mikkel. The man shrugged, and Tuuri explained. 

“His Luonto has left his body. He should wake up at some point. Hopefully soon, but it isn’t that big of a deal.”

Emil wasn’t so sure about that, but he nodded, feeling the exhaustion sink into his bones. He would get decontaminated, eat, and then sleep. By the time he woke up, if he was lucky, Lalli would be awake too. 

 

Lalli was not awake when Emil woke up the next day. The mage was wrapped in blankets and tucked under the bench as the rest of the crew broke down camp. Emil stayed by his side, however, watching Lalli’s breathing. It was slow and even, and it just seemed like he was sleeping, able to wake up at the slightest noise. 

Emil sighed. What was he going to do with himself? Here he was, on an expedition to show everyone back home what he was capable of and what was he doing? Mooning over his crush. A crush that didn’t even speak the same language as him and was a mage, for crying out loud. Emil didn’t think magic was real until yesterday. 

But none of that mattered as Emil looked at the light playing over Lalli’s face. His cheekbones stood out, and Emil stifled an urge to trace them with a fingertip, to see if the skin felt as nice as it looked. 

Instead, he tucked the blanket around Lalli a little bit tighter, making sure that he was snug and warm enough. A strand of hair was askew, and Emil brushed it back in place, trying not to let his hand linger on Lalli’s forehead. He patted the scout’s hair into slightly better shape before letting his mind drift. Maybe he would ask Tuuri hot to ask someone on a date in Finnish. Not that the expedition was exactly conducive to dating. Emil had unconsciously started to stroke Lalli’s hair as he thought, running his fingers over the silky grey strands. 

Lalli’s eyes flew open as Emil continued to be lost in thought. He had noticed the weird pressure on his head, which had snapped him awake as soon as his Luonto had returned. Once he realized that it was Emil, and not a threat, Lalli relaxed. The hand felt nice, the rhythmic motion soothing.

Lalli half-closed his eyes and waited for Emil to notice that he had woken up. Emil was so caught up in his thoughts that it took him a few minutes to realize that Lalli was awake. When he noticed that the scout’s eyes were open he snatched back his hand guiltily. If Lalli had woken up, why hadn’t he said anything? Emil would have thought he would have been against being touched like that, but it looked like he hadn’t minded. 

Lalli sat up and stretched, yawning as he did so. 

“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Emil said, and couldn’t resist giving Lalli a quick hug, retreating when the other tensed up. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, retreating a few inches across the floor. 

Lalli looked at him for a few seconds before leaning forward and hugging Emil instead, wrapping his arms around Emil’s chest. His breath caught for a second at Lalli’s behavior, but it evened out as the scout clung to him. 

“Are you okay?” Emil asked, concern saturating his voice. He started to carefully stroke Lalli’s head again, and he only snuggled closer to Emil.

“I am happy you are not hurt,” Lalli responded in halting Swedish, inching forward with the blanket still wrapped around him. 

“I’m glad that you aren’t hurt either,” Emil said as he found the other man in his lap. Lalli was clinging to him like he was a life raft, and Emil was struck by the impulse to do something really stupid.

After a second’s hesitation Emil leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Lalli’s forehead. The mage freed one hand and pressed it to his forehead, looking at Emil with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Emil said in a rush. “I shouldn’t have done that, I just really like you. I shouldn’t have done that without at least asking first. Granted, I don’t know how to say the word ‘kiss’ is Finnish, so I don’t know how I could have asked, but still.” Slightly breathless, Emil realized that Lalli had not moved away from him or hit him, which was a good sign. 

“Emil,” Lalli said, drawing his attention. “I like you, for some reason. I really like you. I didn’t know you liked me too. This is good.” Lalli spoke in Finnish, however, and Emil didn’t know what he was saying. He could catch the emotion behind his voice, however, and it was very clear when Lalli leaned forward to press a soft kiss to his lips, catching Emil by surprise. 

The surprise didn’t last too long, however, and as soon as he pulled away Emil leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Lalli and pulled him into a gentle kiss that the mage was more than happy to reciprocate. This was beyond Emil’s wildest dreams and he had to ask himself if he was dreaming. He decided that if he was, he didn’t want to know about it and let himself melt in Lalli’s arms. 

Lalli’s eyes were shut and he broke away from the kiss, ignoring Emil’s querying sounds. Instead, he pressed his head to Emil’s soft chest and pushed him backwards. The cleanser toppled over without too much complaint and rested his head on a pillow. Lalli crawled forward, dragging his blanket along with him before settling right next to Emil, half flopped on top of him. His arm was across his body and Lalli’s cheek was pressed into his shoulder. 

Once Lalli pulled the blanket up Emil got what he was trying to do and shifted just a touch to get comfortable. One of his arms went around Lalli, and the mage snuggled closer, asleep almost immediately. 

It wasn’t like they didn’t deserve the extra sleep, Emil reasoned as he stifled a yawn. Besides, Lalli liked him back, and gods help anyone who tried to make him stop cuddling with his crush. Emil turned until his face was just brushing the top of Lalli’s head and closed his eyes, feeling the steady rhythm of Lalli’s breathing against his chest. With a smile on his face Emil drifted off, letting their chests rise and fall together.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the SSSS gift exchange. I hope that my giftee Urania_baba likes it, and that people in general enjoy this fun little story!


End file.
